The Atlantic has a nice overview of how wrongheaded Donald Trump's [cough**cough ... Putin's] decision to pull U.S. forces out of Syria is for both the region and America's foreign policy down the road. Here's a snippet.
The abrupt policy decision to seemingly abandon our Kurdish partners could not come at a worse time. The decision was made without consulting U.S. allies or senior U.S. military leadership and threatens to affect future partnerships at precisely the time we need them most, given the war-weariness of the American public coupled with ever more sophisticated enemies determined to come after us.
As the article points out, we are abandoning the very people who were the "backbone" fighting ISIS in Syria but who - without them - Donald Trump could not have declared the complete defeat of ISIS." How effective were the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) forces? Very.
Over four years, the SDF freed tens of thousands of square miles and millions of people from the grip of ISIS. Throughout the fight, it sustained nearly 11,000 casualties. By comparison, six U.S. service members, as well as two civilians, have been killed in the anti-ISIS campaign.
In a few words, Trump's decision to leave Syria is a disaster of epoch proportions that will reverberate well beyond Trump's tenure in the White House.
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Want to read more?
The Atlantic, "Top Military Officers Unload on Trump."
The Atlantic, "Trump's Sickening Betrayal."
Lawfare, "Will Abandoning the Kurds Result in the Mass Release of Islamic State Figher?"
Yahoo!, "Syria Update: Turkey is Blowing the Hell out of It and the Russians Are Cheering."
The Hill, "US soldier in Syria: 'I am ashamed for the first time in my career'."
- Mark
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